Football Cliches

Deconstructing the gloriously unique language of football – the words, the phrases and the tiny things you didn't think you cared about – with Adam Hurrey, Charlie Eccleshare & David Walker. Visit nordvpn.com/cliches to get four extra months on a two-year plan with NordVPN

• Muddled momentum maxims, Fletch on the beach (again) & footballers of Aesop's Fables
• Spongebob Ozil, high foreheads & a 50-yarder that ticked all the boxes
• Jon Champion vs Marvel, Carrick's goal-down demeanour & the Frankness of Fulham
• An unusual Super Sunday anticlimax, Frodo Hargreaves & Harry Kane on bread
• The "Somehow Never Played For Abu Dhabi-Era Manchester City" XI
• Throwing glass at Man City's window, tinpot national badges & a 10/10 commentator's curse
• Unimaginative abuse, tactical whistling & circular red cards, with ex-referee Graham Scott
• The non-emergency pod: Tainted vs stained, Polish adverbs & Andy Townsend's pub toilet
• Co-commentator voice ID & performatively not interfering with play: The listeners' loves & hates
• 35.3% of Earth's land mass, Mourinho's printer & Martin Tyler's five-decade challenge
• The Football Cliches Quiz XXVI: Cliches vs The Listeners
• Offside contamination, yards of confidence & Drury's Down Under doppelganger
• Late doors, John McGinn's trademark finish & accidental commentary football chants
• Cliches Live in the sunshine, the Mike Dean content machine & ASMR in the EFL
• The washed Sky Sports News, Horlicks FC & the Transfers That Feel So Right XI
• Vomiting footballers & 30 years of the electronic sub board: The listeners' loves & hates
• Sarcastic passes, tiny football studio furniture & the most un-booable position in an XI
• Wake-up reality checks, cracked MOTD logos & the ultimate Puskas Award goal
• Counter-attack calculations, club nickname knowledge and Keys & Gray in 120 seconds
• Community Shield coasting, breaking down a "bomba" & how to launch a football podcast
• Rhyming clangers, David Seaman chuckles again & Keysey on a Lime bike
• Carabao curtain-raising, regrettable stepping stones & FSV Bachmünden
• Fearing for Fulham, goal celebrations in the shower & the Repatriation of Richard Keys
• Money-grabbing gargoyles, John Stones' meta-knackered shoulder & Farmer Alan Shearer
• Free Dreamland episode: The joy of watching football on holiday
• Secondary goal celebrations & the "we talk about" epidemic: The listeners' loves & hates
• Tom Cruise's FIFA-speak, Messi's grassing & the Pure World Cup 2026 XI
• (Over)familiar failings, the freshest possible World Cup final & Luis Figo vs T. rex
• A little bit all at sea, gyroscope magnitudes & Joe Cole on the pyramids
• The Aguirre noise, lungbusting thresholds & the Penalty Miss XI
• 1,114 Dan Burns, retro World Cup controversy & the most unsatisfying noise of the tournament
• The Boxpark backlash, unfinished Azteca business & the unluckiest World Cup score-avoider
• A correct year for every last-32 game, Trumpian co-comms & breakfast with Sean Dyche
• Fox-mode Fletch, Scottish limbo & Andy Burnham's one-on-one finishing
• The Vamos epidemic, Lineker on ITV & accidental 90s trance in VAR announcements
• England's beloved scoreline, Messi's scout badges & the hydration-break hand gesture
• The BBC/ITV truce, World Cup life-bursting & Tina Turner's spot-kick record
• Giant lanyards & England camp mood updates: The listeners' World Cup loves & hates
• England's Florida scoreboard XI, niche FIFA metrics & watching the World Cup in 4D
• The Football Cliches Quiz XXV: Cliches vs The England Pod